Congregations worship in nontraditional buildings

Chico >> A white, medium-sized building with a pointed roof mounted by a cross, full of pews from the front, where the pulpit and organ sits, to the back. This may be the image many associate with church but that is not the case for every congregation.

New Vision United Church of Christ recently sold a portion of its church home on East First Avenue, where the church has worshiped since the late 1950s and began its new beginning in a rental space on Fifth and Mangrove avenues.

Rev. Jim Peck said the church was at a point where it simply could not afford the repairs needed for the building, so he and the congregation decided it was best to move.

"It took three years to really work through this," he said. "This is a big, big change for our church, for any church."

Peck said New Vision sold one of its buildings to Chico Community Church, pastored by Gary Hamilton, which has never owned a building. Previously, Chico Community Church met at Little Chico Creek Elementary School.

"For them, it was a huge change in the opposite direction," Peck said. "We had good conversations as pastors about leading our congregations through major change. For us, we were giving up a place, for them, they were taking on a responsibility."

He said in their conversations he and Hamilton talked about how just as New Vision had begun to pray about what to do about their building, Chico Community began to pray for a new place.

Peck said now that New Vision is in a nontraditional place of worship the congregation may be interested in making some more changes.

"Changing locations is going to give us more room to experiment, we've just made a big change why not make other changes too?" he said. Another hope with the nontraditional building is that "it won't quite feel like walking into a church," Peck said as he emphasized "church" in a deeper voice.

Thus far the congregation has been very receptive to the move and he hopes that more change will be welcomed, he said.

"Churches have to start thinking not just about membership but about all those who have contact with the church within the course of the week, and we actually think this will give us more opportunity."

The congregation has started thinking of different ways to organize the service, such as not using an organ for music or rather than Peck preaching from behind a pulpit, setting up tables with topics and allowing the congregation to discuss scripture. Because of space, Peck hasn't been able to stand behind a pulpit for two weeks now, and he said he likes it.

Transparency and listening to the wants of the congregation have made all the difference during this adjustment period. "My approach to pastoring a community is that we should slow down sometimes to let some folks catch up, but we can't stop moving, and we have to keep moving forward into the future," he said.

Located basically in the "basement" of St. Augustine of Canterbury Angelican Church on Salem Street, is Fusion Church.

Pastor Jeremy Rhodes said the church's location, though it is small and sometimes inconvenient for people to find, creates different ways for people to be involved.

"Each week we have set up and tear down, so a way to be involved can be setting up chairs," he said. "Some people wouldn't stick around for more than 10 minutes, but we've seen people come who resonate with what were doing."

Just as the congregation doesn't have a permanent place, neither does Rhodes. He has made his office at the local Starbucks, which can sometimes be a bother, but he prefers it over an office. Because he is always there, people will question what his job is. When this happens, he said he is glad to tell them.

"Working in a office, I felt like I was being sent to my room, and I couldn't build relationships but being in Starbucks helps me connect with the community in a unique way."

Fusion, which meets on Saturday night, rather than Sunday because of building scheduling, does service projects on the third Saturday every month, so they don't meet in their "church" at all that week, which Rhodes said some people really appreciate.

Miguel Rivera, pastor of Grace Bible Church, said though Grace Bible meets in a building that resembles a warehouse and though the church may one day move into a permanent church building, that is not their main concern right now. He and the other staff would much rather concentrate on other things.

"Some churches try to build too much and get distracted. If you have a great building and people never change and grow, that's not shepherding the flock," Rivera said. "We want to build a family."